Bonus post today, because I just read something really cool and wanted to share. Author Matt Stewart is releasing his entire novel, The French Revolution, on Twitter today — yep an entire novel in 140-character blurbs, lots of them. Matt’s also offering the novel free just for today on Scribd. Why? It’s Bastille Day, the…
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I got up early and wrote this morning, and it feels good. After not writing consistently every day this week, and really needing a few more hours sleep, it wasn’t as easy as it has been to jump write back into the story. But once I got going, the words flowed, and before I knew…
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Yesterday I wrote about the so-called “rules” of writing that are broken by many best-selling books on retail shelves now. Here’s two more: Don’t date your story with product placement: Writing that your character has a crush on Zac Efron can give the story a touch of authentication, but the reason this is considered a no…
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Lovers of Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird book about her writing life, rush to the DVD store tomorrow. Docurama Films is bringing out Bird By Bird With Annie, a documentary (“portrait” according to the box cover) about the writer, whose Bird By Bird is often listed as one of the favorite books on writing. Look…
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Ok, so I haven’t been offered an advance for my book yet. I’m still working on a brilliant (I hope) query letter to sell the book. But, there have been a couple interesting Web stories/posts in the last few days about book advances, and it’s something that even yet-to-be-published authors should know about. So, back in March,…
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Today on Day By Day Writer, we welcome debut author Rachel Dillon, a fellow member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. Rachel is currently doing a blog tour talking about her book Through Endangered Eyes: A Poetic Journey Into the Wild, published by Windward Books. Here’s her bio: Rachel Dillon was born…
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Here’s some nice news from the industry — mixed with some bad. Borders reported a $185 million loss for its 2008 fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31 — that’s not the good news — but the chain has plans and among them is giving more floorspace to children’s books. Now, that’s good news. Even better, is that…
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A couple weeks ago, I asked if e-books are the future, and linked to two articles that point to an answer of yes. Yesterday, I read an article in PC Magazine called “How to Make E-Books Successful.” In it, Tim Bajarin talks about what the perfect e-book reader should be, such as light, easy to…
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the SCBWI Houston Editor’s Day, where five editors — Simon & Schuster’s Alexandra Penfold, Beach Lane Books’ Allyn Johnston, Golden Books/Random House’s Diane Muldrow, Egmont USA’s Elizabeth Law and Sleeping Bear Press’ Amy Lennex — talked about what they look for when they’re considering a book to…
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Thanks to Mand, who has contributed a nice new section for the Community Story. Who’s going to be next? Follow on the story from the end of Mand’s post in the comments. And now onto some fun links I’ve stumbled on. First up, Donald Maass, of Donald Maass Literary Agency, is giving away his book…
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